Thursday, 8 September 2011

Gravehammer........ Swedish and morbid...

There are two interviews from the old Panzerfaust zine #6 left... Here's first of them. The band is called GRAVEHAMMER. The interview is rather shitty, as the answers are completely useless and short - I usually don't publish such interviews and bin them immediately, as they're worthless - but I decided to publish this one, despite the short answers from the band... Why?
It’s always nice to find young, unknown horde slaying with primitive, but killer old school metal shit! Many of them nowadays come from Sweden, what shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, since this country has always had loads of good stuff. But it's interesting to see that quite often the guys playing in such bands are very young, still in their teen age. Well, here's one such young, but morbid band! GRAVEHAMMER - at the time of doing this interview - hasn’t unleash anything except of primitively recorded demos, but they did crush me with nice thrash / death metal! I liked them, so here’s interview… Pity only that the guy, who’s answered it didn’t have much to say! What the fuck! Too much booze last night or maybe you’re so ignorant? You’ll be punished in hell, you lazy fucker ha, ha! GRAVEHAMMER!!!!

Hell-zzz!!! How are you, my Swedish comrade? Tell me what are you listening to at the present? Are these just old bands / recordings or maybe you also treat yourself with new albums and hordes?
Hell-o comrade. At the moment, KING DIAMOND. We listen to everything that we enjoy, we don’t really care if it’s old or new.

That’s good for you... I really like the name you gave for the band!!! Ha, it may suggest a mix of two potentially inspiring old bands - HELLHAMMER and GRAVE, but honestly there isn’t much from these acts in your music! I would rather suggest MERCILESS’ “The Awakening” for instance! But again, nice moniker!
Thank you. We just came up with it, its nothing special about it.

Yeah, and your short answers already start to annoy me man! When I look at GRAVEHAMMER pics, I see you all must be pretty young, am I right? Don’t think I have a problem with that, because I don’t!!! I’m just curious what has pushed you all to play such disgusting and morbid sounds?? Most of nowadays teenagers prefer to listen to MY BLOODY VALENTINE and such crap, not fuckin’ MORBID or NIFELHEIM ha, ha!! And you’re from Gothenburg! Do you want also to prove not every band from this city has to play so called “melodic death metal” ha, ha?? But seriously, how did you all start playing together as GRAVEHAMMER? What was your aim while forming the horde? Are you morbid??
Yes, we are between 15-17 years old. We play this shit because we understand what metal is about, and because we enjoy playing it. Yes, the scene here is bullshit, there are only a few bands who play real metal here. All the fake metal bands from here can fuck off and die (Avatar and Melek). We knew each other, we liked the same music, we formed a band, nothing more to say. We had no aims, just to play. We are beyond morbid.Hmm, obviously you all have missed the good pioneering times of 80’s/90’s, when the Swedish cult death metal bands started to rise their flags of hate. But sometimes I have an impression that nowadays Sweden has so many very young acts, which together want to resuscitate the feeling of old scene! That would be the reason for existence of so many great old school acts, like NECROVATION, TRIBULATION, EVISCERATED and those, who’re dead now: REPUGNANT, KAAMOS… Your comment?
There was a time few years ago when no one has been interested in it! Yes, there is a couple of good new bands now its cool.

Damn you man! Want to feel my boot in your ass? Give me some better answers! That’s just ridiculous! OK., I love the extreme and raw sound / style of your “Morbid Obscurity” demo and also those rehearsal recordings you did. They all have quite awful, primitive production! Tell me, do you see GRAVEHAMMER to record in more professional conditions for future releases? Or maybe you prefer to keep it as morbid as possible? I think that nowadays too many bands start to record their first demos in too professional conditions; 6 months after starting the band they think of themselves as rock stars, want to record well produced album, without getting any demos or rehearsals like it should be and used to be a traditional way for starting band! Your comment?
We’re not really looking for any special sound as long as we like it. There rehearsal recordings were so obscure because we didn’t afford to record in a real studio, so we borrowed Deathripper’s dad’s old recorder from the 70’s. The next demo will be recorded in a studio as well.

Your songs are rather short, about 2 minutes long; why so? Not too many ideas or what? But they do THRASH like hell and could remind early MERCILESS and RAZOR for instance mixed together, only played much faster and with disgusting sound! So, how’s the songwriting looking like? Is it very spontaneous work, just at the rehearsals? What is the main focus for you then?
Because we don’t compromise with our music. We just put together a couple of riffs, and then we’re satisfied. Instead of making a song with 999999 super-awesome riffs we make 3 songs with 9999 awesome riffs.

Yeah, especially if your tracks are so simple with just maybe 3 riffs in each haha! How much do you care about the promotion of GRAVEHAMMER? I personally have been quite lucky to find your band in the internet (oh, so hypocrite I am haha), but never have seen really any reviews or interviews with the band. You also limit your tapes with very small numbers, like “Rehearsal of Death” was released in 10 copies only! What’s the point doing such small numbers of recordings available?
We do as much promo as we can. Yes, we only did a few demos because we didn’t think that many people would like it or listen to it, and we couldn’t afford to make anymore copies.

Now CEMETERY TAPES, which I think is your label (am I right with that??) is about to release “Morbid Obscurity” demo. What will be your next plans about this label and the demo then? Are maniacs showing a growing interest in GRAVEHAMMER already? And what stuff are you about to get for your distro?
CEMETERY TAPES is not the GRAVEHAMMER label. It’s just the singer Vic who has released the demo on tape because there was a demand for it. No more GRAVEHAMMER releases will be released on this. There are a few people who likes our shit, more then before, we have sold most of our demos now.

You all seem to be highly fascinated by old horror movies, like “Brain Dead”, “Zombie Holocaust”, “Evil Dead”. Tell me, what does interest you most in these pictures? Is it really just a fascination of gore and guts ha, ha? I guess these movies inspire your lyrics in some way? Oh, by the way, what’s your opinion about the newest horror movies, like new version of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and movies like “Saw”, “Hostel”, etc?
Yes, we all worship “Cannibal Holocaust” and “Braindead” and shit, but we’re not a gore metal band for that. But they are disgusting and great. New horror movies can be good to, but we like the old ones better. They are classics.

Fuck, thanx again for answering for all my questions. I’ve seen a poster announcing your gig with PAGAN RITES. Tell me, how often do you play live and how’s the feeling on stage? Do you play any covers as well? And what’s that place called The Crypt? It seems to be a cool place for underground metal concerts, am I right? Tell me something more about your local scene!
We’ve only played 2 real gigs, one with MORBID INSULTER, and the one with PAGAN RITES and EVISCERATED. We don’t play live very often, because there isn’t a big interest in real metal in Gothenburg at the moment. The Crypt is a okay place down town, it’s a okay place to play at. There isn’t really a local scene in Gothenburg, but a couple of bands that play real metal.

You wrote me about two new songs you just recorded. Have you also done (record) it at your rehearsal place? Any news about the split you would be interested to release? What local bands would you like to share a split with?
It’s recorded in a studio. We have no plans for a split yet. But there are some bands that are interested in doing splits, but no local bands.

Some of you play also in the band called CHERNOBYL. Tell me something more about this another unknown underground act!
Dave plays guitar and sings and Hugo plays the drums. We play like a mix between Grindcore and Death Metal. Influenced by bands like REPULSION, AUTOPSY, DEATHSTRIKE, SLAUGHTER (CAN),etc we’ve just found a bassist. Check the www.myspace.com/chernobylswe

Oh yeah, just see me going now to check the internet fuck! Ha, have you already listened to new NIFELHEIM album???
Yes we heard it. There are a few good songs, but its not as good as the others we think.

Go to hell!!! Thanx for you’re lousy answers, hopefully we’ll see your lazy asses here in Poland one day, playing some cruel tunes and drowning in litres of vodka!
Yes thank you, and fuck off. (Fuck off you too, bastard!!! No more such lazy assholes in this zine!)

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What is this blog for...?

This blog is first and foremost to remind the UG metal community my work on PANZERFAUST zine, so I'll try to exhume my old interviews and reviews from that zine.

Blog is also an opportunity for me to share my thoughts on new releases, new bands... I'll publish here new reviews or interviews I've written recently, just for the pleasure of doing so and getting these things out of my mind, as I still enjoy writing about the music I love and live.Finally I'll be sharing here any others things I find interesting...